Furthermore, the Supreme Court's eventual far-reaching, pro-gay decision in Lawrence v. Texas appears to have energized the religious right wing of the Party, which is especially strong in the South, the Party's conservative base. It has renewed their calls for a Party Platform plank opposing same-sex marriage and endorsing a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

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The lack of consensus about glbtq issues in the Party--with moderates in urban areas and in the Northeast offering at least some measure of support for glbtq rights, while social conservatives, especially in rural areas and the South, remain implacably opposed--will likely continue. In a sense, the question of glbtq rights has been a hot button issue for a larger struggle within the Republican Party. The libertarian wing of the Party has proved sympathetic to glbtq issues, if only because it privileges the concept of individual liberty, while the socially conservative wing has been virulently anti-gay because it sees itself in a religious battle. Groups such as the LCR will likely face an uphill battle for full acceptance within the Republican Party.

In the United States, glbtq candidates have achieved some significant successes at the ballot box in the last three decades, running for and winning local, state, and national elections.

Libertarians are not necessarily advocates of gay and lesbian rights, but they certainly want the state out of a person's bedroom and they question any governmental regulation of marriage.

Political scientists have generated insights important to the study of sexuality through research into glbtq participation in formal politics, studies of sexuality as a category of power, and reconceptualizations of the relationship between sexuality and politics.

Lesbian and gay couples have been fighting for the freedom to marry since the dawn of the modern glbtq struggle for equality; despite some success abroad, progress toward same-sex marriage in the United States has been slow.

First used to refer only to anal intercourse, sodomy was progressively defined by the Church Fathers, and many later lawmakers, to include all sexual acts that could not result in procreation.

Two of the most significant Supreme Court decisions regarding constitutional liberty for glbtq people are Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) and Lawrence v. Texas (2003).

The American glbtq movement for equality has largely allied itself with the Democratic Party.

An important organization of the early post-Stonewall era, the Gay Activists Alliance, which flourished from 1969 to 1974, strove to give gay men and lesbians visibility in American politics.

Log Cabin Republicans, a gay and lesbian organization, is dedicated to the principle that equal treatment under the law for gay men and women is consistent with the principles and values of the Republican Party.

The oldest continuously operating national glbtq interest group, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has played a significant role in the development of the glbtq movement for equal rights.

In 2012, Mark Takano, a Japanese American from Riverside, California, became the first openly gay person of color to be elected to the United States House of Representatives.